One Mum’s Surprising Perspective on Gaming Boundaries.

I recently sat with an 11-year-old boy who said something that completely stopped me in my tracks:

“I love gaming… but I have to be really careful how much I do, ay Mum?”

That boy was Max* — bright, self-aware, and brave enough to say out loud what so many kids feel but don’t have the words for.

His mum had run a little experiment. She let him have as much gaming time as he wanted over three days. And by day three, the changes were undeniable.

He was angry. Rude. Sleep was a mess. School was a battle.

This wasn’t about attitude. It was a crash in brain chemistry — specifically dopamine, the feel-good chemical that spikes during gaming, then drops off a cliff when the screen goes off.

And Max could feel it happening.

That awareness was the turning point. He and his mum sat down and made a plan — some simple but clear gaming boundaries they could both stick to. And the difference was remarkable.

I wrote about their experience in my latest article:

📝 [Read: One Mum’s Perspective on Gaming Boundaries]

It was such a powerful conversation, I made it the focus of this week’s YouTube episode. In the video, I unpack the brain science behind what Max experienced — and why these emotional crashes are so often misunderstood, especially for neurodivergent kids.

If you’ve ever seen your child come unglued after screen time and thought, what is going on? — this might be the missing piece.